W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868-1963
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Born in Massachusetts and has a relatively happy childhood
Does write about realizing how he was different when he was rejected by a white
classmate: “It dawned on me with a certain suddenness that I was…shut out from
their world by a vast veil” (qtd. in Baym 876)
Educated at Fisk, Harvard, and the University of Berlin; earns a doctorate
Very interested in sociology
Teaches at Wilberforce University (1884-96); University of Pennsylvania (1897),
and Atlanta University (1897-1910)
Although he never loses his interest in academic writing, his focus becomes
increasingly activist and he begins writing with a larger audience in mind
Focuses on studies of African American life
1903: The Souls of Black Folk
o Comes to national attention
o “The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line”
o Writes about the “twoness” of being an African American: “One ever feels
his twoness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two
unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose
dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (Baym 875)
o Also notable for its public refutation of many of Booker T. Washington’s
ideas about accepting “tolerance” from whites in exchange for cooperation
1905: Niagara Movement, which “aggressively demanded for African Americans
the same civil rights enjoyed by white Americans” (Baym 877)
1910: Moves to NY and begins serving as the editor of Crisis, the official
publication of the newly-formed NAACP
1920 on: Becomes more frustrated with progress in the United States and begins
shifting his focus to international problems of inequity and becomes interested in
Pan-African affairs
1961: Joined the U.S. Communist Party
1963: Becomes a citizen of Ghana
Work Cited
Baym, Nina, editor. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume C. NY: W.W.
Norton and Company, 2003.